Evaluation 6

Equipment We Used For Our AS Coursework

Tripod

• A tripod is a three legged stand which the camera attaches to, and can film steady, constant shots. This tripod is adjustable in many ways, and has a very important contribution to making a film look semi-professional. We couldn't have filmed our AS Production to the standard we did without this piece of equipment. The camera was attached to this for the majority of the shots we filmed, other than one tracking shot; the tripod isn't necessarily made for filming tracking shots. 

• Some useful adjustable features of the tripod were that the camera was able to spin around on the tripod; this allowed us to film panning shots. Also, the tripod could be adjusted to allow the camera to tilt. Tilting can be used with composition to create different effects. Finally, the tripod had three main height settings.

• When filming we used to the tripod to allowed us to film stable and steady shots, as it prevents camera movement this came in particularly handy when filming extreme close ups and allows smooth panning/tilting as without it we would have been using our hands which would make for a rather shaky and unprofessional looking shot. The tripod was especially useful in terms of convenience/portability as it was collapsible we were able to move quickly with it from each location thus allowing us to be more practical and time efficient. However a drawback of using the tripod, in relation to long shots we were very limited in terms of how far we could move the camera once on the tripod.

Vimeo

• Vimeo has been of great use to us throughout our AS coursework. We first came across Vimeo when we had to upload out preliminary productions onto it. The fact that it is so easily accessible at both school and home makes it very appealing and has been efficient in saving our time. Vimeo is very practical as it's free to use and allows members to upload enough videos as we needed to. We used vimeo to post our final production, vimeo was useful as it was accessible in school. I found vimeo very easy to use as it offers a cleaner aesthetic than YouTube. Videos are larger and there's less clutter around the frame so he primary focus of the website is on the video, and nothing else.

Blogger

Blogger is a blog on Google, to make one you are required to make a Google account. This was an advantage on its own, this is because by creating a Google account we got an online drive, where we can save anything we want to. This came in handy when we needed to store our final production somewhere we could access on a different area of the computer. 

• Blogger has been successful in allowing us to post every stage of our production and AS coursework in a professional, simple, and efficient way. Like Vimeo, blogger is also very easily accessible at both home and school; this made it significantly easier for us to complete work both in and outside of school. Blogger is also practical as it's free, and allows you to post as many posts as you want to - this is good because we post a lot of things.

• Blogger allows you to do many things such as; upload and embed videos, insert pictures, customise your blog, change fonts, size and colours of writing, and edit existing posts. This was useful as an important part of our blogs is in fact the way it is presented, my point being blogger and its many key features made it easier for us to present our blog in an effective way.

• We used blogger to post our blogs for our media production, including planning, research, videos and evaluations. I found blogger particularly good for creativity, we were able to design our blog in whichever way we so desired, this was helpful as our AS production is based around thrillers I was able to customise my blog with a rain affect which I believe to reflect the brief, another advantage of blogger is it is easily accessible in and out of school which allowed the group to spend a lot of time working on our blogs to ensure they are of a high standard. The system was very easy to use and efficient.

Sony Handycam

• The camera we used for our AS production was a Sony Handycam.

• This was the piece of equipment used the most as it recorded the whole production. We learnt the basics of how to use this camera whilst filming our preliminary task earlier on in the year, this was the mainly the purpose of filming the preliminary task. Although we knew how to use the camera, this knowledge proved to be vague, meaning we had to take half an hour out of our time to refresh our memory, and enhance our skills.

• This camera had a built in microphone which was useful as it meant we didn’t have to use an external microphone to record our sound. The sound quality of this built in microphone wasn’t perfect, however because there was only 2 words spoken throughout our whole production we didn’t feel it was important to use this external camera, when other groups needed it more. The built in microphone picked up a lot of background noise, including the noise of the stream flowing, the wind blowing, and an odd car passing. This was acceptable though as it helped create a more unsettling, natural background, making our thriller appear more realistic.

Pinnacle Ultimate HD15

• For editing our final production we used pinnacle ultimate HD15 which is a video editing program originally developed by Pinnacle Systems as the consumer-level counterpart to Pinnacle's former professional-level software, Liquid Edition. It was acquired by Avid and later by Corel in July 2012. Pinnacle Studio allowed us to edit our production at a professional level by utilising all of the software made available to enhance the overall look of our production, e.g. titles, dissolve and fade edits, slow motion edits, ellipses edits and also enabled us to tweak the sound, for example when looking back at our production we realised Rosie’s lines were in places a little too quiet and using pinnacle we used a microphone to voice-over her original line and make her line louder and clearer.

• Pinnacle studios was used for many reasons and was a key piece of equipment that we used. This allowed us to cut clips which was essential especially for creating a professional looking match on action. Also, it allowed us to edit the sound. This was useful because we used sound from some clips within our production and placed the sound elsewhere in other clips to ensure the sound was consistent, and to get rid of talking.

In addition to this, pinnacle enabled us to put a sort of blue filter onto our production which created a more sinister and cold atmosphere by dulling the bright colours of the bushes, grass and daylight. Pinnacle also allowed us to use transitions such as dissolve edits and fade to blacks which were essential in creating a smooth looking production in which shots changed from one to another in a consistent way.